Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wheel driving device and a cleaner robot having a wheel driving device.
Description of the Related Art
Among home appliances, self-propelled cleaners, or so-called cleaner robots, which automatically clean the floor, have become common equipment. For example, JP 2011-161242 discloses a conventional cleaner robot. In the cleaner robot described in JP 2011-161242, a plurality of motors are arranged, which are, respectively, one for driving a blower, two for driving a wheel driving device, one for driving a main brush, and one (or two) for driving a subbrush. In addition, the cleaner robot generally has rechargeable batteries arranged therein, and electricity is provided to each of the motors through the batteries.
However, in the cleaner robot described in JP 2011-161242, individual motors are required for driving the wheel, the main brush, the subbrush and so on, and it is necessary to supply electricity to each of the motors for operation. Thus, the power consumption of the cleaner robot is increased. In addition, since the cleaner robot is driven by batteries, the amount of the power consumption influences operating time of the cleaner robot. Furthermore, if the power is consumed too fast, after driving of the cleaner robot is started, the cleaner robot must frequently return to a charging station to charge itself up, and cleaning efficiency of the cleaner robot is thus reduced.